Rhode Island unemployment rate ticks up to 9.1 percent for December

Rhode Island’s economy ended 2013 on a sour note. The unemployment rate ticked up in December to 9.1 percent, from 9.0 percent, and the state lost 1,500 jobs, according to data released Thursday.

Kate Bramson Journal Staff Writer journalkate

Rhode Island’s economy ended 2013 on a sour note.

The unemployment rate ticked up in December to 9.1 percent, from 9.0 percent, and the state lost 1,500 jobs, according to data released Thursday by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

The number of unemployed Rhode Islanders rose by 400 people to 49,900. That’s down by 5,700 people since December 2012, but that number never counts the people who have dropped out of the labor force because they’re discouraged and no longer looking for jobs.

Five key economic indicators the state tracks each month all moved in a negative direction for December. That’s the first time that has happened since April 2009, according to Donna A. Murray, the DLT’s assistant director for labor market information. That’s in sharp contrast to November’s report, in which all five indicators were positive for the first time in a year.

“Obviously, this is a disappointing report, especially following such a good report that we had last month,” Murray said, stressing that one month’s report, either good or bad, does not indicate a trend. The department frequently says that only three months of data indicate a trend for the state’s economy.

DLT Director Charles J. Fogarty was unavailable to comment because he was out of state at a conference, according to the department.

Rhode Island’s unemployment rate remains well above the national rate of 6.7 percent for December.

In Massachusetts, the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.0 percent, from 7.1 percent, in November, and that state added 10,300 jobs in December, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Compared with December 2012, the Massachusetts unemployment rate has risen slightly, from 6.7 percent.

It’s unclear whether Rhode Island is still virtually tied with Nevada for the country’s worst unemployment rate. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will report all state rates on Tuesday.

Despite the disappointing monthly report, Murray said the state had “some positives” when comparing the December data with that from a year ago.

Back in December 2012, the unemployment rate was even higher — at 9.9 percent. The state gained 3,600 jobs in the past year.

Murray said she thinks the state will record more yearly job growth — for a total of 5,000 to 6,000 jobs — once the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics completes its annual revisions of the jobs data, expected in early March. Each year, the BLS revises its previous monthly reports by analyzing additional real data, which includes tax data. Last week, the DLT reported that actual tax data showed the state added more jobs in September than previously reported.

However, the monthly jobs report released Thursday shows that two key factors were worse at the end of 2013 than at the end of 2012. The number of employed Rhode Islanders dropped by 6,900 people over the year, to 500,700, and the size of the state’s labor force is down 12,700 from a year ago.

The jobs data was released while the Rhode Island Foundation convened hundreds of Rhode Islanders for its next installment of Make it Happen RI, an initiative it launched in 2012 to jumpstart the state’s economy. It also comes at a time when the state Senate has said addressing the state’s jobs crisis is its top priority this year.

“We have a serious economic challenge in the state,” said Sylvia Maxfield, an economist and dean of the Providence College School of Business.

One of the answers for turning things around, she said, is getting the young people who attend college here to stay — “and helping them envision a healthy economic future here.”

Another is what the Rhode Island Foundation is doing — stressing the importance of “economic intersections.”